Not on a BMW, but I had a Mercury Mistake... I mean, Mystique, that was possessed by the Demon of Perpetual Car Snafus. One of the twenty-one (really) warranty-serviceable failures was the horizontal center-mounted air conditioning vents. I hardly ever moved them, and one day just touched it to point it a different direction .... the entire assembly fell apart like they were dominoes. I vividly remember all the little plastic blades cascading down to the center console.

OP do you have beefy Bigfoot paws? I have this fat friend "Adam Bomb" with the fattest fingers you have ever seen, anything he touches just crumbles in fear of the wrath of his paws. I wont let that fat bitch within 10 feet of my car. Just food for thought...

OP do you have beefy Bigfoot paws? I have this fat friend "Adam Bomb" with the fattest fingers you have ever seen, anything he touches just crumbles in fear of the wrath of his paws. I wont let that fat bitch within 10 feet of my car. Just food for thought...

That's what my original thought process was when the first one snapped off. Then I went on to try to slide the remaining 3 from left to right slowly and felt that they were all loose. Once one of the clips fails chances are the 2nd one on the same side will follow shortly. I wish I could blame it on my brute strength but that's not the case.

Just giving a heads up to people that this may happen. Unfortunately if you aren't under warranty you will need to buy the whole housing as you cannot purchase just the tab.